So in the early-mid 80’s I did a lot of gaming. Mainly AD&D. For a couple of those years, it was just about all that I did. In the last seven years, I’ve dabbled in it again with some folks in town. Not AD&D 1ed, but other D&D and other non-D&D games.
But, for some reason I don’t recall, last year I decide to try and get the kids into it. As AD&D 1ed was my game back in the day, it’s still my favorite and still what I want to play, so I started building a 1ed campaign.
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Having a conversation with a co-worker yesterday, of a similar vintage as myself, I realized that we both shared the same approximate Dungeons and Dragons time, about 1981-1987. he mentioned that he had usually DM’d and they that had bought, and gone through, most of the modules.
Unfortunately, as most of my time gaming in the 80’s was solo, I didn’t use the modules much (its hard to DM and play at the same time…), but I always liked them and bought them when they stood out. As I have been finding fun in my personal AD&D 1Ed resurgence I’m been having the last year, I’ve thought about modules, and thought about the ones I never got, but would now like to have. Note that I’m only looking at AD&D modules here, and no offshoots, not even Dragonlance
I still have all of mine, so I thought I’d take a stroll down Module lane to see what I’d like to consider. Just for kicks, they’re ordered by year first and then catalog number… And note that I have highlighted the ones that I have… Which is 20 published between 1978-1983 and one published after 1983.
Ah yes, Table (III.E.) Special.
I am a huge huge fan of the Dungeon Masters Guide (1979 edition). I got my copy in, I suppose, 1981, and I am convinced that it is one of the great works of imagination out there. Not just the best RPG book (which it is), but just a great creation in general. The scope of it is vast, the rules are deep and strange… It’s an amazing, breathtaking piece of work. I loved it as a teenager and to this day, even through over 30 years of not playing any RPG’s, I find it to be irresistible to page through and reread. I just fricking love it. If anyone ever says “Oh, ad&d 2nd ed, or D&D (any edition from OD&D up to 5e) is better than AD&D 1e!” I know that they’re wrong. Sure the game might be better, but the existence of the original DMG all by itself makes up for any shortcomings of the game. I love it. I’m not going to wax on here about GG, who is the sole credited author, because we all know that he didn’t come up with all of it on his own… So I’ll just stick to the book itself.
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Finally, you can all relax… It is time for the long awaited follow-up to my Freaky Freaks post of a year and a half ago (here)! This was actually brought on though by the news at they.mislead.us that this is Play A New RPG Month!
And, yes, this topic is actually something that I do ponder occasionally… My history with (non-computer) role-playing games. Like many of my um, well, peers?, RPG’s played an enormous role in my teen years. Unfortunately, with all my games being in storage and with the many years have passed since the events have occurred, I can not wholly vouch of the accuracy of some of these statements.
It all started sometime in 1981 when Matt Ward gave me a brief introduction to the game at the landing at the top of the NE stairway at school.. After(?) that, my mother got me the red box set of D&D Basic and I was hooked!
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